1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a musical tone control apparatus and method for controlling generation of musical tones.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known, various musical expressions can be provided using various natural instruments including keyboard instruments such as piano and organ, string instruments such as violin and guitar, and wind instruments such as trumpet and flute. Further, electronic instruments such as electronic piano and organ can be used to provide musical expressions as rich as those of the natural instruments.
The manner of playing a musical piece is characterized by controlled amounts of various characteristics (such as rhythm, volume, and interval (hereinafter referred to as “characteristic amounts”). Therefore, in order for a player to provide a desired musical expression using a musical instrument, he or she must select and output specific musical tones with appropriate rhythm and volume. However, it is very difficult for a beginner, who is not accustomed to playing a musical instrument, to properly select all these characteristic amounts for performance.
On the other hand, what is called Desk Top Music enables the user to play a desired musical piece by using a personal computer to input various characteristic amounts for musical tones to the computer. Thus, even a beginner can relatively easily provide various performances. However, with this method, the user cannot have a feeling that he is actually playing a musical instrument. Therefore, those who desire to enjoy actual operations of playing a musical instrument are not always satisfied with this method.